ANAHEIM – Federal agents raiding an Anaheim apartment arrested a man suspected of being the ringleader of a maritime illegal immigrant smuggling operation that stretches from San Diego to as far north as Los Angeles County, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reported Monday.

On Friday afternoon, immigration agents discovered what they said was a drop house in an apartment complex in the 3400 block of Ariel Place in Anaheim. They found four men who are suspected of being part of a maritime smuggling operation and eight men and one woman– still in wet clothes and with sand caked onto their bodies -- who were smuggled into the country illegally, immigration officials said.

Some of those smuggled into the country illegally said they paid up to $6,000 to their smugglers, according to a federal affadavit.